]]>Most of us inevitably find ourselves in situations where we don’t have access to our preferred graphic design apps. Fortunately, there is no shortage of excellent free graphic design tools for both quick designs, and as viable alternatives to popular paid design applications.

Our first entry is not strictly a graphic design tool, even if it does have many features of normal design apps. If you need an online presentation tool that not only gets the job done, but looks great as well, Prezi is exactly what you need. You can animate images, text, and videos, and spruce them up with a wide variety of effects. A nice touch is the ability to share finished presentations on social media.

If you need to be able to create quick, effective infographics and don’t really need most of the other features found in many other graphic design tools, Infogr.am is the perfect solution. Key in important data points on a spreadsheet and watch Infogr.am automatically change the infographic. You can then share your infographic on social media or embed it on your website.

For the times you need to create and edit vectors but have no access to Adobe Illustrator and the like, you can’t go wrong with Vectr. There are two versions- a desktop app, and a browser-based app. The browser-based version is more than most of us will ever need for creating icons, logos, illustrations, and so much more. One big plus is a collaboration mode, that allows you to co-design a vector with someone else, anywhere in the world.

If you find Infogr.am a bit too fiddly, you might find Easel.ly’s customizable templates a bit easier to use. Easel.ly has an object library with customizable elements, and there is a wide variety of useful fonts and styles that should cover standard infographic needs.

For those who don’t understand it yet, Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is an open format that lets you reproduce vector graphics ‘programmatically’. SVG-Edit is bar none the most popular online SVG editor there is.

SVG-Edit is built entirely on HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript with no server-side processing. As it’s open source, not only are you able to use it for editing and creating SVG documents, you can make your own version of SVG-Edit if needed.

This is hands-down, one of the better free graphic design tools for browsers you will find. Not only does it feature most of the functions we’ve come to expect from standard desktop tools, it has a few features of its own. Unlike many other free graphic design tools, you can also use Sumopaint to open files from your hard drive. For me at least, this is a big thing.

Unfortunately for many iPad users though– you need Adobe Flash Player to run Sumopaint.

Infographic résumés are now a standard for graphic designers and anyone else who wants their achievements to stand out just a bit more. Vizualize.me is an incredibly powerful, yet simple free graphic design tool. Using the tool is straightforward. You can even take a look at some stand out examples created by other designers to inspire your own designs.

Ever wondered what it was many websites used to generate live infographics? Chances are good they were using Google Developers chart tools. Featuring the functionality you would expect from paid software, this infographic generator can also collect data in real time. This makes it handy for a wide variety of time-sensitive infographics.

Unlike the other free graphic design tools on this list, Canva is targeted at people who aren’t graphic design professionals. For most people, even the simplest design tools tend to be incredibly arcane and hard to use. Many hardcore hobbyists and pros have a hard time keeping on top of all the new features each iteration. Canva by contrast, is extremely intuitive and easy to use.

Canva offers thousands of templates and useful objects. Use the search function to browse through thousands of images. Each are already suited for use as backgrounds or main elements.You can even upload you own photos and graphics.

For non-designers who need to create something fast, or for designers who just need a simple tool for creating anything from wedding invites to Facebook cover photos, Canva is worth looking into.

What other free graphic design tools would you recommend? Comment below.

If a client asks you to create promotional tools for their line and you don’t have an idea where to start, check out this selection of 12 trendy clothing hang tag design samples.

Hopefully you’ll be inspired to come up with your own original tag designs. Perhaps that hang tag you make will be interesting enough for a customer to actually keep, rather than just throw away.

Clothing Hang Tag Design Samples to Spark Your Creativity

Minimalist examples are good starting points, especially for newbie designers. We previously discussed a few advantages of minimalist design in this post, “How Thoughtful Negative Design Works.” Even on a relatively small piece with limited space, minimalist clothing tag design can make an impact.

An understanding of your own brand can help your hang tag design immensely.

Typographic clothing hang tag designs are not all minimalist, though many certainly are. These designs are also a great starting point for new designers, but they can be more challenging than they appear. The amount of text, the message, and the style have to synergize in order to truly work.

Luxury brands can benefit from strong typography.

It’s not all about minimalism. Images can work as backgrounds for hang tags.

Strong logos can make a great focal point for your hang tags.

Understanding negative space is crucial for small prints like hang tags.

Sometimes though, it pays to just have something that’s first and foremost — eye-catching. This is especially true when the brand calls for something that is more forward, rather than subtle. These creative examples are truly memorable. They will turn heads for sure. What will your own creative hang tag design look like?

Shaped hang tags can help a design be more eye-catching.

This understated example is a real winner.

Folded hang tags can provide more space for your brand.

This hang tag’s design really helps the chambray shirt stand out.

Hang tags can be more than just small pieces of cardstock with retail prices and suggested care instructions. They are as much an extension of your brand as a business card or even a store’s physical signboards. Investing time in the design and production of your clothing hang tags can be critical in the competitive world of fashion. It can be that small touch that puts your clothing brand a cut above the rest.

Check out our clothing hang tags page to learn more about your hang tag options. Be sure to contact a representative to better understand which options work best for your specific design and application.

]]>http://blog.uprinting.com/clothing-hang-tag-design-12-trendy-examples/feed/03 Studies That Show Millennials and Print Are a Winning Combinationhttp://blog.uprinting.com/millennials-and-print-winning-combination/
Tue, 22 Nov 2016 16:37:24 +0000http://blog.uprinting.com/?p=25040Millennials, generally agreed to be the generation born between 1980 and 2000,...

]]>Millennials, generally agreed to be the generation born between 1980 and 2000, spend more time on their electronic devices than any other generation, including post-millennials. You might expect that any marketing campaign that targets millennials wouldn’t need much print. But millennials are diverse, and many of them are far more traditional than you would expect. Print and millennials definitely make a great mix.

As millennials grow into larger earners, they are projected to spend an estimated $1.4 trillion annually within the next five years. Not only are millennials a growing market, they are one that is starting to age and become set in their habits. With the oldest millennials pushing 40, they are no longer necessarily the young people you might have imagined when you heard the word a generation ago.

These are three studies that tell us exactly why something as millennials and print are a good match:

The print medium itself is effective.

Print is fundamentally better than digital at helping us retain information. We touched on this is in a few previous posts, including one on why catalogs became trendy this year. Consider just this one study by The Centre for Experimental Consumer Psychology at Bangor University which further strengthens the point that the physicality of print materials makes for a stronger neural connection than you could ever hope for on digital media today. Using an MRI scanner, researchers have found, without a doubt, that content delivered on paper stimulates our brains far more than does virtual and digital content delivery. This stimulation is also tied to better content retention.

This effect holds true for all generations. It does not matter if you’re part of the millennial generation or not.

Millennials like to receive print.

These findings are from a study by Quad/Graphics titled “Millennials: An Emerging Consumer Powerhouse”. The researchers tracked millennial consumer habits, and found that while millennials are multi-channel shoppers, print still figures largely in their paths to conversion:

82% of Millennials read direct mail

54% look forward to receiving print catalogs through direct mail,

49% took print coupons with them to a physical store

70% used grocery retail inserts and coupons in the past month

6% higher coupon usage than all generations as a whole

Millennials feel print materials have more value.

In a strict sense, print does cost more per impression than digital. But the quality of the impression matters. A TRU survey of 600 people aged 16 to 26 in 2011 showed that an overwhelming majority — 87% of respondents — preferred traditional birthday greetings to emails and other digital forms. Among millennials, events such as weddings tend to use digital invites initially, followed up with traditional paper and cardstock invitations.

Millennials and print have in fact, a closer relationship than you might expect. They have also led the revival of traditional stationery and greeting cards. This demonstrates that at some level, millennials crave the physicality of print. Which is great for marketers. Not only are print materials wanted, they are also a better delivery system for content.

Millennials and print make a good match thanks to both generational and physiological reasons. Just because they happen to be the most digitally-connected generation, doesn’t mean you should abandon print when reaching out to them.

In order to make the most out of print marketing to millennials, you may consider an integrated approach. We discussed a few in an earlier post, How to Win With Print and Social Media Integration. Whether you choose to market to millennials with an integrated approach or a strictly traditional one, it’s clear print marketing is integral to any effort to reach and convert this demographic.

]]>Is Above the Line Advertising for Your Business Still Viable?http://blog.uprinting.com/above-the-line-advertising/
Wed, 16 Nov 2016 16:43:55 +0000http://blog.uprinting.com/?p=25037With the continuing dominance of the internet as the new marketing battleground, the...

]]>With the continuing dominance of the internet as the new marketing battleground, the traditional marketing channels have largely left the spotlight. After all, consumers have moved on from the television, radio, and newspapers into the digital platform. It makes sense then that focus on above the line advertising should fall off, right? Not so fast.

What is “Above the Line”?

Before we talk about above the line advertising, we need to define first what the “line” actually is.

This proverbial line in marketing came from FMCG company Procter & Gamble back in 1954. Back then, P&G differentiated their advertising partners between those that deal with a broader audience and those that are more direct in nature. They draw a clear line dividing the two, with television, radio, and other paid mass media put “above the line” and those that targets specific groups of people “below the line”.

Above the Line Advertising and the Internet

As I’ve mentioned, the dominance of the internet proved to be problematic when it came to the concept of Above the Line. Social media and search engine marketing did not fit snugly in either side of the line. It’s broad enough to target quantities that are equal to above the line advertising, but targeted enough to resemble those by below the line advertising.

With ad-free streaming for a small fee, Netflix is continually pulling people from traditional TV.

For instance, the rise of Netflix and other digital media providers as an alternative to television has prompted the advertising practice to undergo significant changes. Spotify, as well as other music players on smartphones, has changed the way music and advertising work together.

These modern advertising techniques have made the concept of the “line” outdated. Above the line advertising needed to adapt.

So is above the line advertising still a viable medium for you to advertise with?

In a nutshell, MarketShare found out that the effectiveness of TV advertising remained steady as opposed to the expected decline due to the internet. Television even outperformed digital and offline channels on some key performance indicators such as sales and new account creations.

The study found out that TV advertising is the most efficient in achieving key performance indicators. It also maintained its effectiveness over the last five years, albeit in a constant, decreasing rate.

Radio Marketing Evolution

Similar to television, radio has undergone significant changes caused by the new was people access music. Internet streaming has made on-demand music possible compared to the uncontrollable playlist that radio stations have. True enough, advertising through the radio has slowly declined. However, it carved a significant niche that digital cannot seep into.

Marketers can tap the drive-time hours for radio advertising

Radio owns the local scene.

Local radio stations connect with their patrons at a personal level. This relationship is unique compared to digital stations like Spotify or Pandora. People usually have their own personal favorite stations and their choice is not only influenced by the music. It’s usually the personalities behind the voices and the local vibe that is different across communities.

The reason is still the same. Outdoor advertising is one of the most cost-effective forms of marketing. People going out of their homes to go to work, school, and social activities ensures the constant exposure of billboards and print ads. It takes in marketing capital for as long as it stays up.

It’s also easier to integrate with your other print marketing efforts. Designs for billboards can easily be reused for flyers or brochures that can be distributed on-site for people who need more information.

Changing Times

Times are indeed changing and the lines that we’ve drawn between marketing channels are continually being blurred by technology.

So is above the line marketing still viable for your business? The short answer is yes. Traditional marketing is still effective. That much is presented by numerous studies. In practice however, it’s much more complicated.

The blur that we see in these marketing channels reflect that of our target consumers. People are now omni-channel consumers. They consume information through multiple mediums. They research online what they see on TV and billboards or what they hear on the radio.

The best way to target them is to integrate the traditional with the modern. And as marketers, it is our duty to adapt to the changing times.

Do you have any experience on advertising above the line? Tell us your story below.

]]>UPrinting offers an amazing free project review service that covers 30 different technical issues. Even more incredible since many other online print services offer none. You can make your printing experience even better though by simply following these tips to get your image file print-ready.

1.) Set your image file to CMYK!

This will make the most difference in your final print. Any design to be printed should be set to the CMYK color mode.
The default for most monitors is RGB and this is likewise the default mode for most design programs. Setting your design program to CMYK ensures the best possible color fidelity on your prints.

Here’s how to check and set your file’s color model on three popular design programs:

Photoshop: Image > Mode > CMYK Color

Illustrator: File > Document Color Mode > CMYK Color

InDesign: Window > Color

2.) Vectors or Rasters?

Vectors allow image clarity and sharpness at any size. Photographs and many kinds of artwork however, are normally rasterized. This means that as you blow up the image, pixels become more and more noticeable. This isn’t an issue if the image is of sufficient quality.

For vectors, Adobe InDesign and Adobe Illustrator are the leading design programs.

Adobe Photoshop is the leading program for editing rasterized images. Be sure you set your resolution to at least 300 DPI.

3.) Learn where your bleeds are.

Bleed is a portion of a print design that is trimmed off after printing. The background color or pattern in your print-ready image should extend (bleed) past the edge of where your design will be cut. This gives a more professional look, because it ensures your background will go all the way to the edge once your business card (or other printed piece) is cut. (You don’t want any unintended white lines around it.) Many of our products come with free print templates, and we recommend you download them before you create a design.

If you’re having trouble with bleeds, don’t worry about it. We also offer bleed inspection and creation as part of our free file review service.

4.) Save your images in the right formats

We accept the most popularly used image formats, but to make your experience more straightforward, we’d recommend any of the following:

JPG

JPEG

PNG

TIF

EPS

Illustrator

Publisher

DOCX

DOC

Making your image file print-ready before you send it in will not only make your online printing experience smoother, it can help you create more precise print materials as well.

]]>Surprising Conclusions from 6 Top of the Funnel Marketing Studieshttp://blog.uprinting.com/surpric6-top-funnel-marketing-studies-say/
Wed, 02 Nov 2016 19:43:45 +0000http://blog.uprinting.com/?p=24947A grasp of funnel marketing is part of creating a sustainable business. Understanding...

]]>A grasp of funnel marketing is part of creating a sustainable business. Understanding it can also help maximize returns for given inputs in any enterprise.

This post assumes you’re already familiar with the idea of the marketing funnel. But to sum it up, a marketing funnel is any of a number of theoretical models that demonstrate how a customer is guided through a decision. This starts from awareness (the top of the funnel) to interest, evaluation, and engagement (middle of the funnel) through to action, decision, and nurturing (bottom of the funnel).

Different models will have different numbers of stages and different names for the stages, but they’re mostly based on the same principle, that a customer has to go through steps before they conduct a transaction with you.

In this post, we will focus on studies and white papers that address the top of the funnel. Funnel marketing models will always have marketing techniques and strategies related to creating awareness of your product or service at the top.

Four Conclusions From These Studies

1.) Generating awareness isn’t enough, leads have to be qualified.

In all the studies, it is at least implied that having people know about your product or your brand is not enough. This awareness has to somehow generate interest in your offers. This starts with focusing your awareness efforts on the groups of people your data finds to be most receptive to your message. Sure you can generate a lot of awareness fairly quickly by putting up a campaign that generates controversy. But it will be moot if the audience cannot act on it nor has any interest. Hubspot’s white paper on the role of inbound marketing argues this point very effectively.

How can your business use this?

Use data from sales, direct mail, social media pages, and website analytics to discover the profile of customers who actually have interest in your offer compared to the profiles of the people you actually want to target. Only then can you make informed decisions on the type of “top of the marketing funnel” campaign you want to run.

2.) The “stickiness” depends on both the content and the delivery system.

As the old saying goes– content is king. If your audience is interested, your message will resonate. However, this isn’t the only factor for “stickiness.” How you deliver content matters as well.

Moz’s take on the role of content in at the top of the funnel is very informative:

The top of the funnel is often where we see inbound marketing at its finest. Our goals might include nudging a few potential customers toward conversion, but the way we go about that is rarely by talking about ourselves. Instead, it’s about figuring out what the audience wants and needs to learn about and teaching them those things. If you’re doing that well, you’re associating feelings of gratitude and respect with your brand—not to mention authority. All the while, you’re raising the competence of your readers to a point where the products or services you have to offer are more useful to them. Double win.

However Moz’s focus on digital marketing and SEO paints an incomplete picture. Offline marketing is still an important area. This remains true at the top of the funnel as well, where digital’s strengths are most pronounced.

We’ve discussed this several times before: paper beats digital for sheer “stickiness” of a message. Digital’s strength lies mostly in it’s ability to give you a wide reach for low cost. Prima’s and Nielsen’s white papers both cite previous studies that affirm this.

How can your business use this?

Direct mail, catalogs, postcards, business cards, and brochures all have a role in today’s digital economy. Print products and other real-world items build a deeper kind of trust that digital marketing cannot yet replicate. Digital can still play a crucial role as well by helping you non-invasively find the audience you need, and by giving you access to data that may be difficult to get via offline marketing.

3.) Trust counts for a lot

Merely reaching your audience is the easy part. The hard part is building the authority needed to help drive them further down the funnel. To illustrate this point, we can consider pop-up ads and classic spam emails as top of the funnel tactics that reach billions of people but have a negative impact on the sender’s trust.

Other studies find that combining print and digital makes for especially powerful results at the top of the funnel, without explaining exactly why. The Nielsen paper suggests the “trustworthiness” of print and other offline strategies may very well explain this.

What can your business do?

Combining print and other offline materials with digital is worthwhile. You can cultivate trust with offline marketing while taking advantage of the actionability of digital.

Use top of the funnel strategies that do not invade the “personal space” of a potential customer. However, this is not always avoidable. To offset the negative effects top funnel marketing may have on trust, permission marketing (popularly known as inbound marketing) can be employed. The Hubspot study Why Inbound Marketing is Necessary at Every Stage of the Sales Funneloffers several insights on how this could be done.

4.) Print and digital are not competing formats

Many new businesses since the mid-2000’s have started moving away from offline and print marketing.The attractiveness of digital’s relative low cost and speed has led to widespread adoption. However, many businesses have started to embrace print again thanks to the far greater return-on-investment per impression.

Nearly all of the studies and white papers include print as part of viable top of the funnel strategies. The papers by Nielsen and SalesFusion in particular, point to print and direct mail as viable top of the funnel offers that can go alongside a digital marketing approach.

The previous findings about trust are especially compelling when you consider that the combination of print and digital may be imparting both trust and actionability into just one brand.

How can your business use this?

Print and digital each have their place. They each affect our audiences in different ways. It’s important for any robust top of the funnel strategy to incorporate both where they make sense.

What else have you learned from these studies? What other top of the funnel strategies can you share? Comment below.

]]>The discussions of differences between print and web design in a business setting often devolve into which format is better or worse. But as we discussed in a previous post, this premise is flawed.

They are different tools, each working better than the other, given the right context. Any enterprise that believes in data-driven action owes it to themselves to invest in both and use them where their strengths work best.

But even within businesses that understand the need for both print and digital, there remains the problem of designs that are haphazardly used across both media.

These differences between print and web design should help inform your decision on how to build your marketing campaigns.

1.) Online users are less patient.

We are far more willing to put up with a wall of text on print than we are online. Part of this has to do with expectations. Online content is implicitly for quick consumption. Print content is expected to be more in depth. Obviously this isn’t always true, but most people are primed to be more accepting of long-form content on print than they would be on a website.

2.) Print is about time on page; web is about time on site.

While there are multi-page print products, most print designers work with single page formats such as flyers, business cards, and posters far more often. Even with multi-page designs, crucial elements such as the front and back covers of books need to focus on generating as much interest as possible within that space, as the contents may not be immediately accessible.

In contrast, while time on an internet page can still be an important metric, a single landing page can be designed to lead customers to other parts of the site. Thus making time on any specific page less crucial than overall site time. When designing for either format, these crucial differences should be taken into account.

3.) Web design offers more user engagement possibilities.

Here’s where differences between print and web design are a little more pronounced. You can include contact information, making any print material a two-way communications medium. You can add (clearly non-clickable) links, snail mail addresses, and phone numbers. But they will never be as as convenient as a website or social media page.

Web design for enterprises should in most cases take advantage of the medium. This could mean designing pages to facilitate easier communication with customers. It may even mean facilitating simpler ways for them and other site visitors to add user-generated content such as comments and videos.

4.) Web offers multimedia experiences.

Speaking of videos, web design can also include types of content that would never be possible on conventional print product. It’s not possible for conventional print products to incorporate video, animation, or audio just yet. But this is easily done with websites.

5.) Print offers a more uniform experience.

People view websites from a plethora of different devices, with different operating systems, through any of a dozen different browsers, each with different versions and plugins. When you throw multimedia experiences in, you’ll have to contend with poor screens and audio devices.This can mean user experiences with your website can be vastly different.

What you design for print is generally what your audience gets. With an experienced printer, it will always be what your audience gets.

The choice of stocks should considered by the designer. It makes a difference in the experience of the audience. This applies whether you use paper, PVC, cardboard, vinyl, or some other material. When possible, the stocks to be used in a print project must be considered during the design process.

What other differences between print and web design are there? Comment below.

]]>It can be fun to design your own greeting card, especially for the holidays. But DIY greeting cards for your friends and family have to be designed very differently from one intended for retail or direct marketing.

Here are a few crucial pieces of advice we’ve learned over the years about how to design your own greeting card.

1.) Give several weeks lead time for the event

When you design your own greeting card, you might find that you won’t need that much time. Although it might be possible with reasonable design and copywriting talents to create one in half an hour, you have to give your audience the time and opportunity to find your card. This means completing and distributing the design reasonably ahead of the actual event.

2.) Know your audience

We all know situations where people who we thought should know better grossly misread their audience. When it comes to delivering a greeting card design that works, you can never know too much about the people who will get them and the people they might give them to.

3.) Leave enough space for writing

Avoid creating illustrations over critical areas where captions, notes, and headings might be. While you are free to print your own greeting cards with whatever design and layout you want, it bears mentioning that when you submit greeting cards to a third-party publisher, they may require you to leave certain spaces blank. This might include areas for copyright and publisher information, or just to conform to a publishing house’s style. You also want to leave enough space for the a handwritten message.

4.) Make your subject obvious

You should design your own card to make it simple for your audience to understand. If it takes more than a moment to understand your greeting card, consider a redesign. If it’s a themed card for a specific season or event, this should be immediately apparent from the first glance.

5.) Consider vertical layouts first

Most racks display greeting cards vertically. This configuration is often more space efficient, and can be better for a more visually-balanced proportion of the card, than if they were displayed horizontally. For these reasons, you are far more likely to have your greeting cards displayed in racks that hold them vertically.

If your cards are meant to be directly distributed by mail or by hand, a horizontal design might make more sense.

6.) Know the “top third” rule

via Public Domain

Most display racks for greeting cards save space by allowing different sets of cards to overlap. This means instead of having the entire greeting card cover in view, you often only have the top 1/3 of your greeting card to catch anyone’s attention.

If your cards aren’t meant to be distributed and displayed on a rack, you can use the rest of the space available on your cards’ cover. But if they’re to be distributed conventionally, double-check your design by covering the lower 2/3. If the card’s purpose still isn’t obvious, consider redesigning it.

7.) Be sensitive when illustrating people

The context of your illustrations matters, especially in the socially and politically-aware times we live in. Sometimes even a well-intentioned illustration can be misread. In many instances, more neutral illustrations of themes, fantasy creatures, animals, and objects can more than suffice.

8.) Avoid gender-specific designs unless you specifically intend it

When you design your own greeting card, gender-specific themes should be thoroughly considered not just for the sake of political correctness, but also to avoid possibly missing out on a wider audience. If you intend to appeal to a specific gender, make sure you thoroughly understand that market before proceeding with your design.

9.) Try a print design template

Making your own greeting card design can be much easier than you expect. This is even more true when you use a print template. Using a template for your design can help you figure out which layouts and formats are suited for your needs. Templates make it easy to account for bleed and trim lines as well.

You might have noticed that mainstream holiday greeting cards don’t always have religious icons in their designs, even when they’re intended for a “religious” holiday such as Christmas or Hanukkah.

Conversely, you might also find that cards with a more religious bent often exclude secular images and references such as Christmas trees, Santa Claus, and snowmen.

There is nothing preventing you from creating a greeting card design that intentionally blends these elements. However, the effect of doing so can be jarring, strange and perhaps outright offensive for some people. Make sure you really have a good reason for crossovers before you send your design off to print.

11.) Ask for feedback!

Ask your friends and family for their thoughts on your greeting card design. Without telling them what the card is for, ask them for their opinions. If they don’t “get it” right away, chances are you need a design do-over.

]]>So You Want to Print a Calendar? 5 Calendar Printing Tipshttp://blog.uprinting.com/tips-to-print-a-calendar/
Tue, 11 Oct 2016 23:36:12 +0000http://blog.uprinting.com/?p=24844As the end of the year approaches, we get more inquiries about...

]]>As the end of the year approaches, we get more inquiries about how to print a calendar. Calendars are a popular marketing tool, so many businesses will print a calendar for the holiday season, for a few good reasons.

Everyone needs calendars.

Most people will use calendars if they get them free.

They keep your brand in front of your audience for a year.

Veering away from the commercial side of things, personalized calendars are also popular as wedding giveaways for similar reasons.

Calendars, however, are challenging to DIY and can be expensive if made in any significant quantity. Having them professionally printed will almost always result in calendars that look and feel better, and are cheaper per piece.

But you don’t want to just call up the local shop to print a calendar design you have and call it a day. There are a few things to consider before you print.

1.) Keep your designs focused and consistent.

To really make custom calendars that work beyond the basic function of showing dates, they have to be created in a way that really shows off your brand or the central theme of your design.

The typography, themes, visual design, and choice of calendar format should closely suit the intended purpose and avoid distracting from it as much as possible.

This is more of an issue when you have multiple designers or contributors working with one multi-page calendar design. However, even with one designer working on a specific calendar, it’s still important to ensure that it meets the main objectives of the piece. This is true regardless if it is promotional, personal, or anything in between.

2.) Use a template design.

Chances are a readily-available calendar template will meet your needs. This helps with several common issues when it comes to calendar printing, including alignment, and meeting bleed and trim lines. Even if you decide not to use a template, playing around with one can help tip you off to possible issues to look out for, even with a more customized design.

3.) Use high quality images.

Because of their size, this is especially important for poster calendars, but also follows for other calendar formats as well. Low quality images will often appear blurry or pixelated when printed. Professional printing services are capable of creating photo-quality prints, but you might not be able to make the most of it when you use low-quality images. When possible try to use only high-quality, uncompressed image file formats or vector images as recommended by your printing service.

4.) Calibrate your monitor!

If you want the best possible calendars printed, there is no other way. One thing many online printers and neighborhood print shops don’t tell you is that the color that appears on your screen will not always match up how it looks in “real life.”

Most monitors use an RGB color model while most printers use CMYK. This is automatically accounted for when you print. However, if your monitor isn’t calibrated properly, the colors you see on screen might not match what finally comes out on print.

5.) Consider how your calendars will be used.

Consider the calendar types and print specifications suited for your application. Types that are more affordable per piece, such as card calendars and small magnetic calendars, may be better suited for the kinds of promotions that are top or middle of the marketing funnel given that you are only trying to grab attention at these stages so more expensive prints may be wasted.

In contrast, poster calendars and wall calendars would be practical for more targeted distribution at the bottom of the funnel. At this point you’re fairly certain your customer is closer to a sale, or has already gone through with a purchase and may be close to buying again.

You may also need to draw into your experiences with customers. Check available data on their lifestyles and preferences. Who will receive them? How will the calendars be used?

For example: Where will the calendar be hung? A teenager wouldn’t own a filing cabinet or a refrigerator for a magnetic calendar, but would have a locker to stick it on. Would your customers prefer a glossy stock or matte one? If they will write on it, a matte stock would be better. Would a different print product be more suited? Some people simply wouldn’t use calendars as much as they would stickers or bookmarks. Be sure to ask yourself these questions before you commit.

What advice would you give someone who wants to print a calendar? Comment below.

]]>Using a hang tag won’t just improve the marketability of your product; it’ll also showcase your commitment to quality. Taking that extra step when creating a hang tag design tends to instill greater confidence in consumers– all while simultaneously telling them about the benefits of your product.

The hang tag is such a powerful marketing tool that consumers are more likely to purchase products with hang tags than those without. If you’re considering attaching a clothing tag to any apparel, keep reading for some great tips that will help your tag stand out:

3 Great Tips for Hang Tag Marketing Designs

1.) Stick with one or two tags.

Sometimes, multiple hang tags on a product can just get in the way. For example, if you’re manufacturing a piece of clothing from a proprietary material such as Polartec or Gore-Tex, you may have to include the fabric manufacturer’s hang tag as well to prove the fabric is genuine. In that case, you’d need two hang tags. Bottom line: try to keep to just one, unless you’re required to have multiple hang tags.

2.) Make your hang tag design educational.

Make your hang tag useful. It’s not just a marketing tool; it’s also a customer assistance and education tool, so please use it as such. A custom hang tag is a great place to include information like your website, toll-free number, or care instructions.

3.) Keep hang tag design elements simple.

You want to tell customers about the amazing design and sweat-wicking fabric used on your new cycling shirt. That’s great. But please, keep it simple. Too many hang tags are turned into novellas with paragraphs of text describing every detail of the product. Rise above and make the most of your hang tags. Stick to what’s important, highlight the features, and keep it simple.

Bonus tip: The copy matters!

Way too many marketers don’t really think their hang tag copy through. This is a great opportunity to delight and surprise customers who read yours. Just because you’re keeping them simple (see #3), doesn’t mean you’re giving up on interesting content altogether. Even something like a wittily-written guarantee can make a solid impression on your customer and add perceived value to your products.